He’s probably around six feet tall, which looks huge compared to my five-foot two-inch body frame. “It’s okay,” I say. “I used to go to sch...ol with boys just like them.” Isaiah’s face gets hot. “Shit,” he says. “I’m sorry, I um…” I laugh. “I turned eighteen today and I graduated a few months ago.” “I still don’t know if that makes this,” he pauses. “Acceptable.” “What is this?” I say. “We’re just two people, talking.” “Happy Birthday, by the way,” he says. “Thanks,” I laugh. “So, how big. The father introduced his kids to me, Thomas and Theresa. They smiled and shook my hand. I bid them all goodbye. It wasn't until I was outside that I realized that those kids looked familiar. They were the friends of Emmie who helped her rearrange her bedroom. The preacher's kids.The next night, I made a point of avoiding Emmie until it was bedtime. I said goodnight, blew her a kiss and went to bed. I awoke in the dark hearing a voice, Emmie's voice. She was talking to someone. "...idea how. “Do me, Georgie” she crooned back to him, and so ended the civility of their dialogue for the next several minutes as they spoke to each other, at and over each other, in expletive barks and slurs and fractured declarations of raw want realized – coaxing, cajoling, each building on the other’s last vulgarity, exclaiming the exquisite filth of their desires for one another, their voices ringing off the walls and out the window and all but inaudible from the street four floors below. Whirling. “Come and meet my new pupil. Her name is Sylvia although her friends call her Syl. And she lets them, which shows a lack of self-respect I think, don’t you?” Without waiting for an answer, she turned back to the girl. “Duncan is a friend and he wanted to meet you. Aren’t you honoured, Sylvia?”The girl nodded dumbly. Another strike with the crop on her thigh made her yelp and find her voice. “Hello, Sir.” She managed to force out.“Good afternoon, Sylvia, you seem to have got yourself in a bit of.